Chapter 14How to Assess and Certify an AskingCity

As AskingCities grows, both in its home city and in the others that adopt it, an inevitable need arises to assess the maturity of the approach. This assessment is not based on the number of activities carried out, the number of volunteers, or the magnitude of the resources mobilized. At AskingCities, evaluating means understanding the degree of integration of the model into the civic culture of the city. It is about analysing how the system moves, how the team thinks and how the institutions and actors involved relate to each other. The central objective of this chapter is to explain how to interpret the maturity of an AskingCity from a systemic perspective and how to design a certification process that preserves the coherence of the model without impeding local diversity.

14.1What does it mean to evaluate AskingCities#

The AskingCities assessment is not about measuring, but about assessing and interpreting. Traditional models use quantitative indicators—beneficiaries served, activities performed, hours recorded or estimated economic impacts—but AskingCities operates with a different logic: social impact, which is a much more subtle facet to measure. An AskingCity is evaluated by observing whether there are real stories that express the spirit of the model, whether the strategies are effectively alive, whether the team understands the internal causality of the system, whether quick wins appear consistently and with quality, whether the AskingCities language begins to circulate within the city, whether institutions collaborate fluently and if AskAuthors generate connections with social impact. Evaluating AskingCities is more like analyzing the health of a living organism than measuring the productivity of a factory.

A mature evaluation of an AskingCity requires analyzing at least seven fundamental dimensions that, together, offer a complete reading of the ecosystem (see Table 4).

Table 4 ASKINGCITIES Assessment Dimensions

The first is strategic activation, which examines how many AskingCities strategies are alive and how deeply they are embedded. It is not a matter of activating everything from the beginning, but of checking that the city is moving in a clear direction, with well-established dominant strategies and emergency signals in others. The second dimension is the execution of actions. A city may have an impeccable strategic narrative, but without actions there is no AskingCities. Here the quality of listening, clarity in rephrasing, accuracy in connections, quality of accompaniment, and ability to document lightly but usefully are evaluated.

The third dimension looks at adaptation through options, looking at whether the city is able to assess AskingCities from its local context, activating few options at the beginning and expanding them as it matures, without adding unnecessary complexity. The fourth dimension is the production of quick wins, which act as the heartbeat of the system. The evaluation looks at its frequency, its quality, its narrative capacity, its emotional depth and the diversity of actors involved. An isolated quick win is a flash; a sustained sequence is a clear sign of maturity.

The fifth dimension is the quality of storytelling, essential for the cultural health of AskingCity. It is observed if the stories are honest, authentic, useful and if they use the AskingCities language appropriately. The sixth dimension is institutional connection, which analyzes the level of involvement of universities, public administrations, the third sector and companies, as well as the diversity of networks that feed AskingCities. A healthy city does not depend on a single actor, but spreads out responsibility and participation. Finally, the seventh dimension is the maturity of the AskAuthors team, analysing its cohesion, its shared criteria, its relational sensitivity, its ability to sustain the operational rhythm, its narrative fluidity and its ability to read the ecosystem. A mature AskAuthors team is the most reliable sign of a stable system.

The maturity of an AskingCity is measured by the depth with which it interprets and activates AskingCities strategies. A mature city is capable of sustaining several strategies simultaneously, combining them coherently, producing stories aligned with them and adapting options without losing simplicity. The more strategies that have come into operation, the greater the overall coherence of the system, the greater its relational impact and the greater its capacity to transfer learning to other territories. Strategic maturity reveals that AskingCities has moved from being a small team-driven effort to a shared culture.

14.2How an AskingCities assessment works in practice#

An AskingCities assessment is not in an audit format. It is a light, conversational and reflective process that takes place through a set of carefully designed encounters. It usually begins with an in-depth conversation with the driving team to understand how they interpret the model and what tensions or advances they perceive. It continues with a review of recent quick wins, analyzing stories, learnings and transformations that have taken place. The strategic deployment is then examined, identifying which strategies are alive and why. Discussions will also be held with institutional actors to gauge their integration into the AskingCities ecosystem, and friction points such as confusing roles, heavy processes or emotional saturation are identified. The evaluation culminates in clear feedback: not a judgment, but an orientation that helps to adjust, strengthen and fine-tune the system.

14.3AskingCities Certification: Consistency Without Losing Diversity#

The AskingCities certification seeks to guarantee the integrity of the system while respecting the identity and diversity of each territory. A city can be considered certified when it has consolidated its MVAC, activated several strategies in a coherent way, produces recognizable stories such as AskingCities, maintains a living and balanced institutional network, generates useful learnings for the global movement and has a team that operates with AskingCities criteria. In addition, certification requires signs of sustainability in the medium term: that the system does not depend on a single person, or on a fashion, or on an initial impulse that is difficult to reproduce.

The certification is an in-depth diagnosis of the real degree of integration of the model in the city, rather than a formal model. Once certified, an AskingCity enters a new stage. It mentors emerging cities, shares advanced learnings, refines their AskAuthors ecosystem, refines their options, deepens their active strategies, and experiments with innovations that can influence the movement's overall architecture. AskingCities is a living system, and each certified city contributes not only to its own growth, but to the ongoing development of the entire AskingCities movement.